Believe and be Baptized

My name is Drew. I'm the pastor here at Hope Heights. Thrilled that you're here. Glad that we get a little chance here to get in the word together. Hopefully be encouraged and continue worshiping altogether. So glad you're all here. I'm excited. Hopefully get to hear maybe after the service a few of these great April Fools. I'm sure some of you have very strong opinions. Maybe or maybe you've been hurt by this day and so you're like, no, we don't do this. One of my favorite things though is that when it is April Fool's Day, that throughout the day you get to see all these marketing essentially that businesses are doing. And this year, like every year, it's been awesome. There's all sorts of fun things that companies come out with, right. That aren't real. But it's fun to see as the day goes on what things pop out. Like KFC came out with toothpaste, fried chicken flavored toothpaste. Olipop has these ranch flavored drinks which sounds so gross. I got excited for one second. I thought it was real. That Duolingo has a five year cruise where you go around the world and learn. It's not true. Does sound fun. Of course. Hot dog flavored sparkling water sounds incredible, but I went to 711 and it wasn't real. You can't actually get hot dog. You could make it at your house though, I bet by yourself. So I can give you the recipe if you want. Hot dog water. I love it. Yahoo. Comes out with this. Just so we can kind of ground ourselves. You touch grass while you type. That seems pretty awesome. This. Okay, so then there's, there's body armor shampoo. Okay. This one though, I was actually disappointed by that. Tic TACs don't have Dr. Pepper Flavored Little cans. That sounds. They have Sprite flavored ones. That would have made me happy. That would have made Jared happy too. I bet if you get just a little bit of Dr. Pepper in your day. Well, so on. What was it? Tuesday was April 1st. April 1st I'm running some errands and I get a text from a friend that was like, hey, while you're out, you should get your free coffee at Dunkin for April Fools. And I was like, haha, nice try. Right? I was thinking, okay, nice try. He sends me this April Fools, not us. There's a reward you type in. This is not a joke. You get free coffee. Yeah, right. So I actually spent a little bit of my day working Kitty Corner from Dunkin'donuts thinking, how funny he didn't get me. Then that night, I come home and I'm reading about, hey, what are all the fun things that came out today? You know? And then at the bottom of one of those articles, it says, here's some that weren't pranks that were cool, like this one. And I'm like, oh, cool, Come on, Duncan. No. And actually, it's pretty sweet, right? They're like, oh, we're not going to fool you. We're going to offer you free coffee today. But I was just sure that I was going to get into Duncan and there'd be, like, a clown with confetti or something that would shoot on me and they'd go, we gotcha. I have been in Duncan's where that might happen. Anyway, so, like, it was. You had, like, the feeling, like, but everyone's joking around today what is true and what is not true. And so I shared this later in the week with someone. Oh, I got fooled unintentionally by Duncan. I thought they were pranking me and they weren't. I could have got free coffee. And they said, yeah, how do we even know what's true anymore in the world? So it went from like, I didn't get coffee to, like, a real existential moment. And we had a discussion. Yeah, it is hard to feel like, what is true? I am pretty skeptical. Generally, if something seems too good to be true, it must not be true. And, like, this is just a moment, right? We get the April Fool's Day and we're hearing these jokes, you kind of generally think, okay, they're not true. Then you hear a few that are, and you go, oh, that's crazy that that was true. But generally, bigger picture, we do have this, right? At least I live in what is true, what's not true. In an age where we have, like, more information than we've ever been able to have access on our inner hand to, like, all the libraries in all the world, and we feel like we know less or even what's real. I think it's hard. It's so hard to have the feeling when you're. When you found out something isn't true that you were so sure was true. Especially maybe something that you argued in a. In a comment at a lunch with a friend that you were so sure and then find out you're not. You're not telling the truth. This. I think this that happens and the culture that we're in of that really, really affects how we view scripture and how we view Jesus. And really, even how we view, as we're in the Book of Acts, how we view the work that's happening in this Book of Acts. So our church right now, we're walking through Acts. We're about halfway through. I think this is actually our halfway point this week, the Book of Acts, we are going to go through all of it here into the summer, people. And the story of Acts is the story of God's work in the early church. As Jesus comes, we see in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we now see Jesus ascends to heaven in the Holy Spirit. So God's still working, but now in his people. Through his people, he's expanding his kingdom, he's growing his church. And we're just getting into it. It's incredible. Things are happening in the Book of Acts. But I definitely read the Book of Acts and go, that's a cool story. And it doesn't, like, land that you're telling me, like, my family's history of things. And so I have a lot of moments where I go, oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's probably not so true. I don't know if I'd say not true, but it definitely doesn't land in me, like, it's true. So my hope today is that we're gonna continue to see some things happen. And I wanna encourage us to land there a little bit. This is truly what's happening. And we're going to see it happen in ways that it would have been really hard to believe it happened. And maybe some reasons why, and maybe that can help us maybe dig in a little bit. Why does that skepticism, why is that hard to believe, kind of default that we have? How does that bleed into play? And then how does it affect us in our faith, in our church, in the way we even get to join God in the Acts that he is? So we're in the Book of Acts. Just really quick to remind us of where we're at. I think it's really important as we build to this moment today as we're in in Book of Acts. We're going to go to Samaria today, which is pretty exciting for some of you. Maybe you haven't been to Samaria before. The Book of Acts starts with all these people coming together in Jerusalem into this one place for Pentecost, this celebration. It's this amazing strategic moment that God says, I have all these people from all these places really in the known world that gathered in one place at one time. And this is when I'm going to unleash my Holy Spirit. And so Jesus, for a little bit, is with them before he ascends and he actually comes to them. And here's some really important passages. I'm going to jump really quick through Acts. That's going to build to where we're at. It might even help us know how true this thing is happening today. In Acts 1, Jesus says this. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Jesus says, I'm going to leave. I need to leave so that the Spirit can come. And now I'm going to work in you, and you're going to see the things that were happening when I was here in the Gospels continue as I'm going to continue building my church. So just this is what Jesus says. This is his promise to us. The Spirit's going to come. And the Spirit does come. We see Pentecost come. It's like they say, it's like flames were over their heads. They could speak in different languages. These miracles were happening all around them. They were changing people. And they saw thousands of people join the church, join the kingdom of God, join the family in that. So the Spirit does come, and they begin to witness in Jerusalem. They're in there, it's mostly with Jewish people. And they're saying it's happened, that the person we were waiting for, the Messiah, has come. It's actually happening. This is incredible. And all these people come to faith again. People from all over the world are there right then. So it's this really cool thing that then they're gonna go home with this new changed hearts. So then we get in Acts 4 in there. Lots of cool things happen. Disciples, the apostles go in there healing people. The Spirit's working through them to see people walk who've never walked. We just get these, like, little pictures. We get these kind of introductions. Hey, amazing things are happening. Here's one. This guy walks. It's incredible. And they actually get. They actually get in trouble for this because they're essentially preaching. Hey, the. The things the religious leaders and even the political leaders, the people in your community are teaching aren't true. Like, they actually are the ones who killed Jesus. We want you all to turn to him. He's the one who has the power. He's the one who should get the glory. He's the one who is really truly our king. And so they're arrested and they let them go. It's their first moment of arrest. And at the end of that, chapter four, we hear that they get arrested and are told, don't talk about Jesus. And they gather together as a church and they say, whoa, this is serious. They're telling us not to say this stuff. It's not true. We know it's true, though. And so they pray and this is part of their prayer. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. So consider the threats. They said, don't talk. Please help us to speak boldly still. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders for the name of your holy servant Jesus. It's really kind of a continuation. Do the thing that you said you would keep doing and maybe even just saying, we want you to keep doing it, knowing God's going to keep doing it. So Jesus says, this Holy Spirit's going to come, it's going to clothe you. You're going to get to be a part of this incredible thing, bringing a witness to this good news. Then there's really opposition, serious opposition to this. And they say, God, help us keep. Keep being a witness, keep talking about this. We want you to continue to heal people, perform signs and wonders. I mean, we want to see things that only the Holy Spirit could do throughout in your name so more people would know you and a bunch more people come to know him. I see a man healed who couldn't walk. That's what got him in trouble. And then it happens again. They continue to see these things happen and it happens again, and they're brought before people again. And we looked a little bit last week at this, and they're brought before and they're actually gonna kill some of them. And then this leader comes who is a mentor to a guy named Saul, who we're gonna meet a little bit today, but a lot next week. And he says, hold on. We've seen this before. We've seen a leader have a group and they kind of go around together and they teach something and that person dies or leaves, and then it fades away. We find out it's not true, it's not God's work. And then we happened again. Remember this guy? Remember this guy? Happened again and again. And then he says, for if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. Hey, maybe we don't need to kill them, because this isn't real. If this isn't true, it'll fail. But if it's from God, you'll not be able to stop these men. You Only find yourselves fighting against God. He really gives this beautiful picture of really story of all scripture, but of what reality is, what is true. The true is if God is in this, if he's doing something, we can join him or we're against him. And if these men who we arrested who are preaching that Christ has come, and if this is truly God's thing, then it's going to work. But if, if it's not, it's gonna stop. We don't need to be the ones who necessarily stop this. And so that happens, actually. The church continues to pray, continues to preach. And this is actually where we get a moment where they realize they're getting so big they need to equip some other leaders. And so they equip this group of seven leaders to continue leading. And along with the apostles and many others. And there's some people named Stephen and Philip and some others in there. And then we get these stories of what happens with some of them. Stephen's one who actually preaches and shares about Jesus and is actually. It gets to the point, it builds so much tension that actually these people do kill him. He's the first that we hear it recorded here in Acts, that actually is killed because of this faith. He dies very similar ways. Jesus dies asking God to forgive them with great peace. It says he. He falls into a rest, into a sleep. It's this really tragic, beautiful thing where we see the difference here in God's work and people's work. And we see it played out that they're fighting against God. And so that is where we end up today, is this Holy Spirit has come on. Signs and wonders have happened. God is doing all these incredible things. But there are some who are saying it's not true. And there's somewhere saying, we want to just join. What God's doing is clearly true. What the Spirit is doing. It's doing things that none of us could do and that none of us have even tried to do. And they found themselves with God's plan. And we see others against God's plan. So one of the people who is part of the story of Stephen is a guy named Saul. And that's where we start off. Now we're going to be in Acts 8 today. We're to read about half of Acts 8 together. And we're going to see some really incredible things that God is continuing to do. And he's actually going to move outside of Jerusalem now. And we're going to start seeing him move out into the world at the end of seven we hear about a man named Saul who was at Stephen's execution. And he was for it. It makes it pretty clear. And actually the beginning of eight says it right. Saul approved of their killing him. They want to introduce this person because this is really important. He is clearly in the. You're against God. You're in opposition to what God is doing. And Luke, who's writing acts to us, wants us to know, hey, there's this player in this named Saul. He's going to take a little moment to tell us about some other people in the church and what God's doing with them. And then he's going to get back to Saul, but he wants us to know who this Saul guy is. And so Saul approved of this, of what happened to Stephen. And on that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. So in Jerusalem, people were hurting people, killing people. Explains even how violent and terrible it gets. And all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. So all these other people in these churches were scattered. They're pushed out or forced out or maybe they left to go somewhere safer with their family and friends. Their churches in the Judea and Samaria, other areas around there, godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began, began to destroy the church. Going from house to house. He dragged off both men and women and he put them in prison. So this is the, this. It didn't stop. The, the Stephen thing didn't stop. They didn't like swell to something. They were like, whoa, this got out of hand. It actually kind of was a moment to start. The fire really got blazing. And so this Saul guy is one of the leaders who is leading this church as apostles are leading healing and seeing more people come to know Jesus. Saul is leading people to destroy and dismantle. He's bringing disunity and hurt and violence, lots of fear, just the way described. He's dragging people out of their homes. It's hands on here with Saul. He's right in the middle of this. As the disciples are hands on, we're going to see in a moment their hands used to pray over and see the spirit move. We see Saul's hands used to destroy me. Just who is this guy? Let's. I want to look quick where this is so we understand we're at, we're in Jerusalem, but it says people scatter out of it. Right. So we get a little picture here if you want. If you're not sure where Jerusalem is, it's just straight down from the boot of Italy. As we zoom in here, this is where Jerusalem is and today's journeys. So you know where we're gonna go today, friends? We're gonna go on a little journey here up the orange path with a guy named Philip. So he's one of the ones. This is one of those things that happens in Acts where it kind of gives us a picture and then it goes. Let me zoom into a couple real stories of what's happening. I want you to get into the lives of real people and see what's happening. And we're gonna follow Philip. He's one of the seven that was friends with Stephen and that group. And he is sent to Samaria. Samaria is this north of them. You see a little path. They went up there. And we're actually first going to get kind of a story generally of what happens with Philip. And then very specifically he's going to meet a man named Simon and then he's going to travel down more south and meet an Ethiopian man and see his life change. All just these two fantastic stories. This is kind of where we're seeing it. And this is important because Samaria, north there is a land that historically was, was conquered by Assyria and Samaria. And Samaritans, if you remember in the gospels, were often kind of the, the people group that was used as like, we don't like those people, like don't be a Samaritan. Except Jesus tells stories about Samaritans who are heroes. So it's this kind of incredible place where the reason they had trouble with them was that they kind of assimilated into religious things from Assyria. So Assyria comes and conquers them. Then the people there are God fearing people. Like we believe there is a God, but their religion and their life kind of gets mixed and mingled with and they become what like Jewish people in Jerusalem would think of. Like you're not really Jews. And so there are people which very much is easy to understand, right? We have people where go like, well you're Lutheran, so I don't know if you're real. Right. We do the same thing. Like where, you know, the Lutherans conquered you and now you're kind of more Lutheran or whatever, right? We do the same thing where you go like, I don't know if you're really a believer. I don't know where you're at. And so Samaritans had that view. So they were looked at as other for sure. They're still kind of in the sphere of God fearing people. But they're kind of next step out and actually geographically kind of the next step step out. And so these are people that. It would have been like, why are you going to these people? These people don't. They're like friendly with the Syrians and they have this history of falling away and not believing and maybe not really believing. And so it's really cool because this is where we see it move. Also. It's just helpful to remember. Do you remember back when Jesus start in the Book of Acts, Jesus says you'll go to Jerusalem and Samaria. It's just helpful to be reminded the thing Jesus said is happening. He's keeping his promise. His Holy Spirit is moving them now to Judea and Samaria. It's a moment I have to wonder even in these moments if Philip, who's walking to these places or traveling these places. Like, I'm like in the story, Jesus said it was going to happen. And so he moves towards Simon. And so we're going to meet these people first. We're just going to hear this incredible story as Philip scatters the. This is a. If you've been around Hope Heights, you've heard this many times. This is a story that has motivated, encouraged, inspired us to say, we get to be these people right now and today, right today in heights, we get to be people who are scattered and get to see the same thing happen. So this is gonna give us a great kind of overview of what we're seeing in the Book of Acts. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip. Now we're gonna zoom into Philip a little bit. He went to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah. There he went to share the same good news. This Messiah has come. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. So he again, the spirit has performed signs. We don't. Doesn't give us what that is, but things that clearly were God doing things. Whether it's healing people or probably healing, there's a lot of healing going on. Things that Philip was doing that had already been happening in Jerusalem, now he's doing there. And people of course, paid attention to that. And for with shrieks and impure spirits came out of many. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in the city. So the Holy Spirit comes, Philip gets there. Spirit through Philip heals people. Not just heals them like I couldn't walk, but like spiritually, like demons are pushed out of people, darkness is pushed out of this place. Things that aren't of Jesus are, are leaving this place. Not just their physical bodies, but their, the bodies are almost like a picture of what's really happening spiritually in them is pushed out and people are healed. And what does that lead to? Great joy in the city. This is why we say we're people who follow Jesus together for great joy in our city. Straight from. We just stole it from Acts 8. It's public domain because it's old. So we can just steal that in our mission. We want to see this in our city. We want to see because of Jesus work people healed physically. But really like especially spiritually, like emotionally. Like when you see their hearts and their heads, their bodies healed because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Just incredible stuff's going on and people have to be encouraged by this. What incredible thing. And then Acts is going to zoom in. Luke's going to say, let me share a couple of these stories. They're incredible. You wouldn't believe what the spirit does does here clearly isn't anything that just Philip could do on his own. And he first tells us a story about a guy named Simon. We're going to dig into this story a little bit before we get to the story about our friend the Ethiopian. Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery. The title of this section of my Bible says Simon the Sorcerer. Which should. Might be one of the best titles in the. In my Bible because I was like I want to read this part. There's. There's one translation that calls him a wizard which is pretty cool. That's very Lord of the Rings. Simon the sorcerer. He practiced sorcery somewhat in some passages like witchcraft in the city. And he. And amazed all the people of Samaria. That all is really all like he's a well known sorcerer as in he's doing some kind of something that is. Is connected to what we probably saw in the last one. Some kind of impure spirits. Something's happening with him. But he's become pretty well known as this guy who has like powers which from our, from our view. Right. In Philip's view, not, not from God necessarily. And we'll hear more. Right. He boasted that he was someone great. Can you imagine? He's like every wizard in every movie is the great and powerful Simon. And I am wonderful and great. And people were amazed by him. And all the people both high and low that's in there. That's helpful in scripture. High and low. Like all different financial, all different economics categories. People, all different people liked him. That just means a lot of people, all people knew of him. He's famous, he was known, gave their attention and exclaimed, this man is rightly called Great power of God, the great Simon. In fact, the name that would have been given to him is Simon Magus. The magus is a word that would be given to, like, great powerful sorcerers or wizards or spiritual people had spiritual power. In fact, the word magus, if you ever drove it down central, there is, like, a new age Wiccan bookstore, and it's called Magus Books because that word is still like the word for kind of the big powerful bishop of their religious work, right? So he's actually called Simon Magus, but he's the. He's called the great power of God. Which from our view, if we even read in Acts, if you understand the Gospels, seems like a risky thing to call yourself the great power of God when you aren't. Like, you might be having. Like God might come to talk to you about that. They followed him because they were amazed. He had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. So see what happened here, first part of this paragraph. Simon, wonderful, amazing things. He's called the great power of God. But Philip comes to town, and even Simon, the great power of God is amazed by the actual great power of God. And they believe and they're baptized. We're gonna see this in both. Both sections today. Both people, they believed this is true. And then they were baptized as a symbol, we'd say, like it's an outward symbol of an inward change. They get baptized, they get dunked in water and pulled out as a. As like a symbol of them being washed clean, a symbol of them dying and rising with Christ. So just this alone is incredible that Simon the great and powerful, realizes he's not the great and powerful, that there's actually one who is great. And it's not Philip that's great and powerful, but this Jesus. And the Spirit comes and they see all of these people. It's just I. I love. Even God uses this gathering of people around someone who they say is great, powerful, great and powerful. And then Philip shows up, and they actually see real, true, great and powerful. And he's baptized and he's astonished, and he actually follows Philip Brown. I'M sure he's thinking like, Philip's the new guy. He's like, in the business of doing wonderful and powerful things. And I gotta see how he does his stuff. If it's true that Simon says yes to Jesus and is baptized, he still though Simon, who for how much of his life has been known as the great and powerful Simon. And this is still the world he knows. And that kind of the economy of how things work is still this. Like, you walk around and show people how powerful you are. And so he follows Philip. Like you. You're like a better. Teach me. Right? You're a better teacher. Well, in the apostles in Jerusalem. Remember, the apostles are still in Jerusalem. Those first leaders of the church. They were in Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God. They sent Peter and John. So Peter and John are going to come to Samaria because they've heard that the Spirit's moving and people are coming to know Jesus. They're starting churches there. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is a. This is a wild passage. This would be one you could read a lot of stuff throughout church history. What does that mean, when the Holy Spirit comes? It wasn't there yet. How did that work? Just for today, for us, they're coming to just affirm, really, that these people, I think, are believers also. There was this tradition then of, like, the apostles coming to pray for them. But these people had put faith in Jesus and his work and had been baptized. And now the apostles were coming to, I think, partially just to celebrate that. This is like, wow, God is moving here in Samaria. When Peter and John placed their hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit. So there's this moment when the apostles come. They pray for these people. These are people who have come to know Jesus and the Spirit is clothing them. And now there's a whole new church, a whole new family in Samaria. That's incredible. These are people who you'd never guess. If you're in Samaria and you went, who do you think is going to be the next one to turn their life to Jesus? You would not go. I bet it's this sorcerer who makes a bunch of money and is famous and people love him for his power. You wouldn't think that. But God comes to this one who says he is great and shows that actually his power is great. And it's actually not the end of the story of Simon. He meets Peter and John. And when Simon saw what the Spirit was given at the laying on of hands, he offered them money. He said, give me also this ability so anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. This is a passage that throughout history and theologians and commentaries have different thoughts. Like, what is this showing us? What we do know, right, is that Simon sees them and sees the miracle that's happening. The spirit of God is with these people. And he's also, I think he's accessing what do I know about the world. He's a very new believer and he's saying, I, I want to do that. And I think in his world he would say, I'll pay you to train me how to do that. That's probably how it worked for him. He paid someone and they trained him how to be a sorcerer or a. To use like these impure spirits to do things. And he says here, I want to do that not knowing. That's. That's not at all how the gospel works. That's not how the spirit of God works. In fact, you don't really harness. You don't control that spirit of God. You join that spirit of God. But he says here, I want to do that. I want to do what you just did. I'm sure he's also maybe feeling a bit like, I used to be a big deal and I got to lead and do all these things and now, well, I just have to like, start over or I don't get to be the big and powerful guy. I don't get to be the popular guy. There's got to be a lot going on. That's a hard, hard thing that happens with us too, as people come to faith, like, how do I fit in? And like, hey, I'm. I'm good at playing guitar. And you go, that's awesome. Let's maybe hold off on you leading our people in worship. Let's just help you grow in your faith and understand what the gospel is. And he's going, I got. Remember I was a cool wizard. Maybe I could be a sorcerer somehow. And Peter has very strong words for Simon very clearly, like, that is not the gospel friend. He says, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. Strong. I hope you die with your money because you thought you could buy the spirit. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to The Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. That's a strong word. I don't think he was expecting that. I think he was probably expecting, yeah, I'd love to train you. You already seem like you're really good at this. Let's train you to do this. And instead he says, I hope you die with your money. Repent of this turn from your wickedness. I think there's this. This is where in scripture that people say they're not sure if Simon was a believer. There's actually like church lore that Simon went on to be like a secret informant to Nero and his secret informer to kings about where Christians were. He was like a double agent. There's even like, just stories of like people saying, don't be a Simon. Became like a phrase in the church for a while. I don't. My reading. If I didn't know that my reading of this, I don't. I don't know if I would say. I think I lean towards. He's a new believer and he just asked a really important question that Peter gave him. A really helpful answer. Harsh, but helpful. That's not. It's so important that you understand this, Simon. We do not buy the power of God. We don't even control the power of God. You have to. That's such a deep sin and probably going to be an idol for you. That's going to control you that you can control this thing and use it to be great again. You have to turn from that. He's. I think Peter really wants him to know this. This is going to be really hard because your whole economy and how things work was this. And it's not this, it's this. And so I don't know. I don't know if he is or not. This statement he makes here makes me. Makes me hope that Simon is. Goes, whoa. He says, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. He goes, understands the seriousness of it, is. It seems like a prayer of repentance. I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want to perish with my money. I want to know the Lord now. But in newness of following Jesus, what does that look like for me? So we have a story here that can be hard to believe. We have to understand Philip went to people who were seen as like the outsiders, the bad people, the ones used as these. Don't be A Samaritan. Don't be a Simon the Great. And we get to hear a story from Luke that goes. You wouldn't believe how powerful the spirit is. It goes to the man they called the great power of God. And it shows how much way more powerful it is than even him. It takes. It takes one of their leaders that is is like harnessing impure spirits to do whatever he's doing in his power. And it shows that really has no power over this. And not just him, but a lot of the people gathered with him. All have come to know and seen the power of the true God, of the true power of God. It takes him from being a man and really, truly humbles him. He understands who God really is and who he really is. He's not the great and powerful who controls God, but we have a God who is great and powerful and has come to rescue us. And then it moves to another person who you'd think Luke just goes, and here's another one. You'd never think this is how powerful our spirit is. It moves to a story about Ethiopian. We just looked at this not long ago in the book of Isaiah that we went through this fall. And so if you. We went through a lot more. We're just going through a little bit of this story. But this is the story the Ethiopian that Philip also runs into. It quotes the Isaiah, which is why we went through it. Go back with the whole. The whole sermon was I think about just this passage, but this is the story. So now Philip went up to Samaria, now he goes back and now he heads over and meets this man. But it really has nothing to do with Philip. This is one of those incredible stories that you go. This is clearly outside of anything that we could do. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road, the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So here's an angel that goes, hey, Philip, thanks for your time in Samaria. Now I need you to head down this way. So he started out and on his way on that road, God knew he was going to meet an Ethiopian eunuch. So a man who is from Ethiopia, which makes him for sure outsider from south in Africa, and a eunuch, who most likely meant he was an official, it says an important official in charge of all the treasury of kandake, which means queen of the Ethiopians. So he was a very important man in charge of lots of money for Ethiopia, for the queen, for the rulers. So he hung out with royalty, and he was a eunuch which meant he, in Jewish tradition would have meant he wasn't even able to really participate. And most of the things around the temple, being a eunuch, this, this difference in his body made him like, you're out. And so he had all these things against him. He was from Ethiopia. He was connected to the royalty there. He was a eunuch, very much an outsider. Like, he was probably traveling back towards home from Jerusalem. They think he probably was like a God fear. So he came, he like believed there was a God, but was outside again that like inner circle that we saw in Jerusalem. He's now kind of like Sumerians, but from Ethiopia and important. So this guy hangs out with royalty. He's in the house. They would say he was in the house of the queen, which it's helpful to understand this big deal. And this man is on the road. Philip is walking by. They have no connection. They're not old friends from college. Like, the Ethiopian didn't like know someone who knew Philip. And he was like, hey, can your friend Philip give me a ride to the airport? They just are on the same road that the spirit of God sent Philip. And the spirit of God, the Ethiopian doesn't even know has sent him. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. And on his way home, he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. He's driving in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah. It's a self driving chariot, so he can read books at the same time. Apparently the spirit tells Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it again. Amazing, right? God gives this word, Philip obeys. It moves towards the chariot. I don't know if he knows who's in it. I don't know if he knows what's about to happen. He just knows. God, you've been sending me places. I get to share good news. We see things change. Your spirit changes people. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah. And he says, do you understand what you're reading? Jackpot. The guy's reading the Bible. That helps. Okay, he's already interested. Hey, do you know what you're reading? How can I help? He said, unless someone explains it to me, how can I? What? Philip says, do you know you're reading? And he goes, no. Would someone explain it to me? Anyone? Philip's there. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The story continues. Philip sits with him. He shares. He reads a passage that talks about this suffering servant who will come and suffer so that all the people can be rescued and their Wounds can be healed. Great passage. Philip had to be like, thank God that was the passage. Because some Isaiah would have been hard to explain. God put like, God put all these things together in this moment, on this road. So unlikely with a person that not long before this, Philip might have been like, this guy doesn't even have a chance in the family of God. Sorry, bud. You don't do enough stuff, right? And in fact, you are, like, physically changed in a way that you just don't have hope. You can't get in. You're not allowed in. And instead, now he's sitting with him explaining this. And the Ethiopian says, I believe there's some water. I should probably get baptized, right? I believe I want to go through this thing that shows that I believe this moment where I get to share. I've been changed. The spirit of God has changed me. And he does. And so now the Ethiopian is part of the family of God. In. In Isaiah, just right after that patch in Isaiah, it explains that there is a God who is making a way for even the eunuchs who would say, I'm dried up and cut off. Language that's intentionally. I think about them and even their sexuality and their. And their bodies. It says. They say they're cut off and dried up. And I say, I'm gonna make a way for them to be. To be in my household. And then many years later, Jesus dies on a cross and raises, and he sends his spirit on Philip. And Philip walks on a road and meets this guy and says, I know you think there's no way. And there is a way. And he baptizes him and says, welcome to the family. Not just the great sorcerer you'd never think, but now the one who there's no way. Even your body has changed in a way you can't get back in. And God says, there is a way. The spirit of God changes this Ethiopian's life. We know this Ethiopian, historically at least, goes back and is, like, attributed as starting the church in Ethiopia. The beginnings of the African church, which not long after this becomes the largest church in the world, is all over Africa is from this moment. He gets back in his chariot, dries off, goes to Ethiopia. And of course, think of. You can't not tell this story over and over and over and starts telling everyone. And we see more people know Christ. And at the end of this, Philip is just taken away. It says, whatever that means, he's gone. He was just. God just needed him right there at that moment in that place to tell this guy what's going on. And so two people are changed by the Spirit. We hear this change in the words even of Jesus as he's teaching throughout the Gospels. Here's two places I think that we see him share. This is what's going to happen to my people. Here's how the Gospel and the kingdom of God works. So in Matthew 23 says, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who are humbled themselves will be exalted. It's the picture of Simon, the picture of all of us, but it's the picture of Simon. He's exalted. He's the great and powerful Simon. And he is humbled as he realizes who God is and who he really is. And that actually is what exalts him. What actually makes him great and powerful is that Christ has come and made him great. Because what Christ has done, he clothes themselves in Christ and not himself. And in Matthew 11 we hear this great invitation from Jesus that is an invitation home to rest that you just have to like. As he says this is he thinking of people like the eunuch who, who didn't have a home in the house of God. And that Jesus has made a way. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart. You'll find rest for souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So we're seeing now Acts 1 happen, Jesus taking those, humbling those and truly giving them life and taking those who are outside and bringing them in. And they're things that are really hard to believe. These stories sound really cool when I read them in my Bible, but I go, yeah, but is that a thing? Is that. I mean, it's hard to believe, but we're seeing it. We're seeing it happen. We're seeing from Jerusalem now we're going to start seeing these places fill in as we see God's going to start move, sending his people to Ethiopia and to Samaria and beyond the ends of the earth as it continues to spread. And all because of what Philippians 2 tells us, that we have a God who himself becomes humbled so that we could be made new. And we have a God who becomes an outsider and is cut off so that we could be made brought into the house of the Lord, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness, being found in the appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. That's our God, who actually is the great and powerful God, who, who humbles himself even to death on a cross. So that therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth and under earth, every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's like a picture of the book of Acts. This is really hard to believe. And if I don't believe this, it changes. I want to give you a couple quick this as we kind of end, I want to give you a couple quick thoughts on where this can go. This, I think if we read in Acts 8, this could be kind of our takeaway from it. Join the Spirit's powerful work. Right? How could we do that? How could we leave here today and be people who pray? What if it starts with that? What if it starts with just praying for those people? There's no way these people would want to be in. That would want to be in the house of God and would want to be in the church, would want to know Jesus or, or even that, like, could we let them in? Do they deserve it? But what if we just start praying for those people? What if we move towards people who are unlikely? What if we actually take a step to share the good news? They. They say, I, I don't know what this means. I'm looking for this. And you say, I know where it is. And then we get to watch the spirits work. I. These are incredible, right? These are important things. We love to see us all. But I think this passage is reminding us that this doesn't happen. The reason that I don't feel moved to this, the reason it's hard to believe, is because I don't start at belief. We need to start, I think, at a time when our first reaction is skepticism. It's like, this seems like it wouldn't work. And so it must not be. I couldn't imagine someone doing that. You couldn't. Because people don't do those things. God does those things. The spirit of God does those things. The first step is really asking God, I really do want to believe this. Do I actually believe the spirit of God can change a person? It might even start with even just seeing your own story. You are very unlikely to be someone who would give their obedience and Their surrender to God. And you have, if you're a believer. So first, what does it look like to believe this first and understand this first and say, yeah, Lord, that is true. You are doing that. This isn't a joke. This isn't like a prank or a technique someone's using. It's true. And that would change us. That would change you to go, I want to pray for a neighbor. I want to move towards someone now and see life change. I want to share this good news because I actually believe it's good news. John Stott says about this, about Acts 8, actually about the whole book of Acts, that effective evangelism. He says sometimes the book of Acts is used to say, now get out there and tell people the good news like the apostles are. He said it reminds us that effective evangelism, sharing good news becomes possible only when the church recovers both the biblical gospel. We actually believe Christ came and died and rose and ascended. That it's true. We believe that and we have a joyful confidence in its truth, its relevance and its power. Where is the source of truth? Where's the source of Someone can meet the Spirit, can meet someone right here, right today, not 2,000 years ago, but anyone in any place. And that there's a power there that can actually change a person. When. When we start there, when we have a joyful confidence in who God is and Jesus is out of. That overflows us wanting to see people come to faith. And what overflows us is no longer asking if someone deserves the blessings of God or if someone has done enough to be in or if they look enough like a Christian. We're not looking for people to go, oh, you already kind of align with church. Well, then I think you should come in. We're looking, going like you don't at all align with church. And we can't wait to see the spirit of God change you. That is every one of our stories. That's what we're looking for. And so we're looking today. My hope is that we can just stop and go. This is true. What if you spend a week just praying, Lord, I want to believe what's happening in the book of Acts actually happened. And what does that mean for me today? Do I actually believe this? I want to. I'm gonna bring our band up. I just wanna share one story here. We were studying this group of us study it. The different pastors and staff from. From our three locations here of Hope on Monday mornings. We study the pastor's great time together. And Brian who's the pastor? Our lowertown location was wonderful. He said, someone's like, man, I wish I, I wish we saw this happen today. I wish I met an Ethiopian on my walk. And he said, hey, look, what does this mean? And he said, you gotta hear this story. He went to see his neighbor, this is just now, weeks ago. Went to see his neighbor to give him a. Brian likes to print off flyers. He gives him his neighbors for Easter. So he went to invite his neighbors to Easter, hey, you wanna come to my church for Easter? And he gave his neighbor one. He said, it's my 79 year old neighbor who I've known for a while and just always invited him to church. And he said, brian, you wouldn't believe it. I go to church already. And he went, what? Because he's like not been interested. And he said, you wouldn't believe this story, but I think this is just how God works. I'm on a walk the other day with my dog on our street, and I walked by a lady and she says, how's it going? And I said, I have a joy in my heart, but I don't know why. I don't know why I said that. It came out of my mouth. And she said, I have a joy in my heart and I'll tell you why. And she shared the gospel with me and I cried and she invited me to church and I brought my family and we love Jesus now. And Brian said, that's the Ethiopian. You're the Ethiopian. He's not Ethiopian. But that happened right now in Shoreview, just a few blocks from Lake Owasso, walking a dog. It happened. That's real. That's not a. I didn't prank you. That's real. The spirit of God is meeting people and putting people together and they're saying, I don't know what to do. And someone says, I have good news for you. And they're changing people's lives. He's 79 years old, his life has changed. He said, I'm going to die and know that I get to be with Jesus. And two months ago I didn't know that that's happening. And that's happening not just in Shoreview. We love Shoreview, but I think that could happen in Columbia Heights as well. I believe maybe where you live and where you work and in our homes, it's true. We're praying that we would believe this and that would make us move to see more of this happen. We want to see more and more people. I want to see my 79 year old neighborhood say the same thing to me. I don't care if I get to be a part of it. I just want to hear that story and be reminded that spirit is moving. Because we, as we continue our time here, we're going to do things that just do that. They continue to remind us and build into us that this is true. First, just a few questions to consider and reflect on. Do you believe? Do you believe? That's the first step. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. That's where we start. Maybe. When is it hard to believe the Spirit's work? When do you feel that skepticism that seems kind of wacky? I don't start considering where is that coming from? What is that? Where do you see the work of the Spirit in your life? What an encouraging way to talk in your small group, just share stories of where you're seeing God's spirit work. What person can you start praying for? Like who's a Simon in your group? Who's an Ethiopian that maybe an actual Ethiopian, but who's the friend? You go, there's no way. Oh, why would. Why is there no way? Who we want to start praying for? Other ways we remind ourselves of the gospel is through communion. Christ tells us, when you gather, take bread, take wine, break the bread, drink the wine, remember that my body was broken. We got to remember that he humbled himself, became much less than great so that we could become whole. And so we do that through communion. It's out in the hallway. You don't have to be a member here. We just ask your believers to be meaningful to you. That head out there with, by yourself or with others and take the cracker and the juice and remind yourself, take that kind of sacred moment to remind yourself and pray also. We sing the words that remind us of this good news, which is fantastic, how good and great our God is. People would love to pray for you in the back of the room for anything. And so please take them up on that. It's an opportunity for the Spirit to work there. And we always have an opportunity to give a way for the spirit overflow in us, to joyfully give, to help the ministry, to help more people ultimately know Jesus. We pray for us and we're going to sing together. Lord, you are really good. It's unbelievable that these happen, but they did. And so they are believable only by your hand. I pray you keep doing that. We ask that in our lives this week. Maybe you just open our eyes a little bit, take off some filters of skepticism or hurt or whatever that is. And we could see your work. And, Lord, there are people in our families, in our neighborhoods, maybe even us, that seem real, far, real cut off from you. And I pray your spirit would meet them and change their hearts. And we'd even get to enjoy being a part of that. We love you, Lord. Thank you. Now, I pray you meet us here in this place and you'd restore us and encourage us. We pray this in your good name. Amen.